"The Defixio Murders"

written by Herbert De Paepe

"Herbert De Paepe is a journalist and fiction writer who lives and works in Ghent, Belgium. He is currently working on his ninth crime novel. His short stories have appeared here [in EQMM], in the short-story collection Dutch Treats, and in In Tenebris, a Belgian fantasy-fiction magazine."

This is the fourth of Herbert's stories I've translated for EQMM. The first two — "Garage 27" and "End of the Line" — were collaborations with Els Depuypt, and the third one —"The Bunker"— was also a solo story.

For "The Defixio Murders," he leaves Belgium — where all three of his previous stories were set — behind, and travels to Trier, in Germany. I not only liked his main character, Inspector Riemerschmidt, enough to recommend "Defixio" to editor Jackie Sherbow, I also suggested that Herbert should write another story about him. He'd never before reused a character from a previous work, but he took my advice and brought Riemerschmidt back for a second outing in a story I hope to translate for a future issue of EQMM....

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